


swing wide, swing true

by nonbinarywithaknife (littleboxes)



Series: dimension 20 [46]
Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Assassination Attempt(s), Campaign 05: A Crown of Candy, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, I made myself sad, Loss of Innocence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:13:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25139032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littleboxes/pseuds/nonbinarywithaknife
Summary: The last time Rococoa looks in a mirror and sees a child, she is thirteen.
Relationships: Amethar Rocks & Citrina Rocks & Lazuli Rocks & Rococoa Rocks & Sapphria Rocks
Series: dimension 20 [46]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1706107
Comments: 6
Kudos: 32





	swing wide, swing true

**Author's Note:**

> made myself sad :(

The last time Rococoa looks in a mirror and sees a child, she is thirteen.

Rarely does the whole royal family leave the castle, but Amethar is two and old enough to be blessed by the chaplain, and it wouldn’t be appropriate for any of them not to be there.

They ride in carriages to Dulcington, and it isn’t the first time Rococoa has been there but it is only the third and even though she’s the heir, she’s the example, she still tries to crane her head to catch glimpses of the townspeople. 

Everything about Dulcington is _different_ , and even as she pulls Citrina back into the carriage before her mother can scold her, she tries to see what caught her sister’s attention. Citrina doesn’t notice and Lazuli is reading a book she must’ve snuck past their mother, and Sapphria is a picture of obedience which means she hasn’t gotten bored yet, and little Amethar is fidgeting again. 

It feels like it takes forever to reach the church, and then they’re ushered out. Rococoa tunes out the trumpeter, because even as they’re entering the church he’s still listing their titles, as if they’re not all forced to memorize them anyway. 

There are tart guard surrounding them and beyond the tart guard are knights and beyond them are a crowd of townspeople. Rococoa doesn’t have much time to look at them, though, before she and her siblings are gently shoved into the front row as Mother carries Amethar to the dais, Father at her side. 

She stares forward, trying not to frown with boredom. Her siblings are being called up to the dais from youngest to oldest, it’s not proper for her to frown, so instead she looks serious, like her father when he reads troop reports. You’re not allowed to be bored in church, but you are allowed to look serious, and then there’s a crash.

There’s a crash, and the tart guard are shouting, and there’s blood, and then Citrina screams.

Citrina screams and that horrible shriek of piercing fear chills Rococoa’s blood to ice and lights her limbs on fire, and she sprints forward.

She grabs the saber from the nearest tart guard's belt and she doesn't hold it like she was born to it because she is thirteen and it weighs both more and less than she expected and when she stabs the man it scrapes against bone and as he dies he does it slowly, inexpertly, and Rococoa’s hands are shaking. 

Her grip is wrong and her swing too wide and the sword not fitted to her, and she knows nothing about any of it, just looks at the body on the ground and the knife in his hand and how close it is to the hem of Citrina’s dress.

Citrina is crying and clinging to Lazuli's side and Lazuli is staring, wide eyed, at the bleeding man, and Sapphria is crying and Amethar is screaming and the guards are shouting and the knights are shouting and her father is shouting and Rococoa-

She holds a too light, too heavy saber in her hand and watches blood drip from it and expects to feel upset. Waits for the guilt, the regret, the tragedy of a vibrant being having been snuffed from the earth to overtake her like the Chaplain preaches. 

It doesn't. Instead, she watches her crying, upset, _alive_ siblings huddle together and she drops the sword and gathers them into her arms and knows, for the first time with a bloodied steel certainty, that she will kill to protect her family and she will do it as many times as she needs to.

(The certainty doesn't stop her hands from shaking.)

(She asks her father to be allowed to train with the blade three days later.)

(He says yes, and she is glad, and her hands are shaking.)


End file.
